[tri-med] Re: Invisible

I liked reading this Debbie. Thanks.
Katy. sont8 mosaic.


----- Original Message ----
From: Debbie <debbwebb@xxxxxxxxx>
Sent: Monday, 22 September, 2008 21:09:07
Subject: [tri-med] Invisible

This isn't just for the invisible mothers of the world.. but for all my
girlfriends and the teachers of our children, who are invisible.. you are
all building cathedrals. :o)

Invisible Mother.....


It all began to make sense, the blank  stares, the lack of response, the
way one of the kids will walk into the room  while I'm on the phone and
ask to be taken to the store. Inside I'm thinking,  'Can't you see I'm
on the phone?'
Obviously not; no one can see if I'm on the  phone, or cooking, or
sweeping the floor, or even standing on my head in  the corner, because
no one can see me at all. I'm invisible. The invisible Mom. Some days I
am only a pair of hands, nothing more: Can you fix this? Can  you tie
this?! ; Can you open this??

Some days I'm not a pair of hands; I'm not  even a human being. I'm a
clock to ask, 'What time is it?' I'm a  satellite
guide to answer, 'What number is the Disney Channel?' I'm a car to
order,  'Right around 5:30, please.'

I was certain that these were the hands  that once held books and the
eyes that studied history and the mind that graduated summa cum laude -
but now they had disappeared into the peanut  butter, never to be seen
again. She's going, she's going, she's gone!?

One night, a group of us were having  dinner, celebrating the return of
a friend from England . Janice had just  gotten back from a fabulous
trip, and she was going on and on about the hotel she  stayed in. I was
sitting there, looking around at the others all put  together so well.
It wasn't; hard not to compare and feel sorry for myself. I was  feeling
pretty
pathetic, when Janice turned to me with a beautifully  wrapped package,
and said, 'I brought you this.' It was a book on the great  cathedrals
of Europe . I wasn't exactly sure why she'd given i t to me until I read
her inscription:

'To Charlotte , with admiration for the  greatness of what you are
building when no one sees.'

In the days ahead I would read - no, devour - the book. And I would
discover what would become for me, four life-changing truths, after
which I could pattern my work: No one can say who built the great
cathedrals - we have no record of their names. These builders gave their
whole lives for a work they would never see finished. They made great
sacrifices and expected no credit.

The passion of their building was fueled by  their faith that the eyes
of God saw everything.
A legendary story in the book told of a  rich man who came to visit
the>> cathedral while it was being built, and he  saw a workman carving
a tiny bird on the inside of a beam . He was puzzled  and asked the man,
'Why are you spending so much time carving that bird  into a beam that
will be covered by the roof, No one will ever see it.. And the  workman
replied,
'Because God sees.'

I closed the book, feeling the missing  piece fall into place. It was
almost as if I heard God whispering to me, 'I see  you, Charlotte . I
see the sacrifices you make every day, even when no  one around you
does. No act of kindness you've done, no sequin you've sewn  on, no
cupcake you've baked, is too small for me to notice and smile over.  You
are building
a great cathedral, but you can't see right now what  it will become.

At times, my invisibility feels like an  affliction. But it is not a
disease that is erasing my life. It is the cure for  the disease of my
own self-centeredness . It is the antidote to  my strong, stubborn
pride.

I keep the right perspective when I see  myself as a great builder. As
one of the people who show up at a job that  they will never see
finished, to work on something that their name will  never be on. The
writer of the book went so far as to say that no cathedrals  could ever
be built in our lifetime because there are so few people willing to
sacrifice to
that degree.

When I really think about it, I don't want  my son to tell the friend
he's bringing home from college for  Thanksgiving, 'My Mom gets up at 4
in the morning and bakes homemade pies, and then  she hand bastes a
turkey for three hours and presses all the linens for the  table.' That
would mean I'd built a shrine or a monument to myself. I just want him
to
want to come home. And then, if there is  anything more to say to his
friend, to add, 'You're gonna love it there.'

As mothers, we are building great cathedrals. We cannot be seen if we're
doing it right. And one day, it is very possible that the world will
marvel, not only at what we have built, but at the  beauty that has been
added to the world by the sacrifices of invisible  women.

-- 

When babies look beyond you and giggle, maybe they're seeing angels.
~Quoted in The Angels' Little Instruction Book by Eileen Elias Freeman, 1994


                  Building ___ooOOoo__ Rainbows
                       www.trisomyonline.org
                  Families Helping Families On-line


      
                  Building ___ooOOoo__ Rainbows
                       www.trisomyonline.org
                  Families Helping Families On-line

Other related posts: